Storm Babet

According to Dr Hannah Cloke (Professor of Hydrology at the University of Reading), “Storm Babet is an extraordinary piece of weather caused by the interaction of a number of linked conditions across the world. The jet stream, which plays such an important role in the weather in Europe, has been squeezed into a weird position, partly as a result of a powerful typhoon that hit Japan last week”.

The storm affected several countries in Europe with differing levels of devastation, from disrupting flights in Denmark, causing the death of a 33-year-old lady in Germany, and collapsing the ceiling of the airport in Faro, Portugal. It left 27,000 people without power in Norway and in the UK, we have seen around 2,000 properties flooded, with flood warnings still in place. River levels rose to such an extent in some countries that they broke records that had previously stood since 2007.

Some locations were anticipated to see 200-250mm of rain, which is heavy, even for Scotland. The record for the most rain in one day was in 1974 when 238mm fell at the Sloy power station by Loch Lomond.

Map of the affected area

The below image from Saturday the 21^st of October illustrates the extent and severity of rainfall across the UK, particularly in the Northern region, with dark blue representing, <0.5mmph, green 2-4mmph, yellow 4-8mmph and orange 8-16mmph.

Severe flood warnings, or “Red Warnings” are quite rare in the UK as they symbolise danger to life. As you can see in the below image Storm Babet warranted 5 Severe warnings in Aberdeenshire in one day.

---

Extent of Damage

Power and transport routes will have been severely affected across the regions, including train lines, airports and roads.

There is widespread damage to commercial and domestic properties with many areas temporarily evacuated.